I am no longer posting here. I will delete this if I can ever figure out how. In the mean time, you can read our blog at http://aslanssong.wordpress.com. I have moved all the old posts there as well so that nothing should be lost. See you there!

July was filled with trips to the lake, the pool, fireworks, and of course, gymnastics. We even squeezed in a hike! It's probably good that there was only one, because July was hot, humid, and sticky! The dog days of summer indeed! :oP

Hiking with Hiking Summit County

I suppose it's technically sitting with Hiking Summit County, but you get the idea...


Heron along the trail.


Dragonfly by the pond


At the lake

Gregory, Ian and Tess splash in the water.


Jeanne


Jason


Ian


Warren


Lunch

Tess had summer camp, which meant I killed time at the park

Helping Eric master the fine art of table tennis

And, of course, the kids had gymnastics

Tess and Emma


Ian and Gregory

I told you we were busy! :o)

I am hopelessly behind with the blog and I don't know how I can ever hope to catch up, but I'll give it my best shot. June was busy with trips to the zoo, trips to Nature Realm, hiking and planting. My birthday was here before I knew it! :o)

We went with some members of our local homeschool group to the Akron Zoo. No stitches this time, yea!!


At the Nature Realm

Ian and Gregory are seeking shade.


The girls are the picture of sweet innocence. If only it were true...


Warren and Eric have no idea who caused all that trouble. Really! That's not a maniacal grin...

Some of the jellies at the new zoo exhibit. Very cool!

Visit Homeschooling and Loving It to enter.

Ok, so I don't really want you to win, I want to win, but hey, what can I say?! :oP

We hadn't been to the zoo in a while and the weather today was perfect. We met some friends there and had a really nice time.

 
Ian, Warren, and Tess in The Rainforest.


The kids really liked watching Blackie swim around.


The kids always love Touch: Amazing Rays and Sharks, and today we didn't have to wait in line! Ian is in the green shirt, Warren is in white.


Evan, Avery, and Tess (in white) at Touch: Amazing Rays and Sharks.


Rays


We got to see the baby rhino! :o)


Tess admiring the Smooth-Sided Toad (he's hiding in the foilage).


What soulful eyes. You can see the intelligence in them.


And these eyes are cold and calculating. This picture makes me feel like I am truly eye to eye with a dinosaur. One that wants to eat me!


Heading for the car at the end of the day. This is the tired kids preferred method of traveling through the zoo. Unfortunately the self-propelled version for mom is not yet available. :oP

This morning we met some friends at Monroe Falls for some lake swimming. It was really nice. The water was a bit cool as you went out, but since Warren was not too sure about that, I was stuck close to shore anyways! :o)

Ian heading for Monroe Falls Lake


Ian and Gregory


Tess


Warren preferred to splash in the shallows.

Ian, and I (and Tess on and off) worked all day on our gardens. We had started seeds in April and transplanted them mid-May, but the weird weather and Memorial Day frost killed off about half of our plants. Stacey told me about a really great farm that was selling plants cheap, so I went Saturday morning to see what they had. Here's my loot:


So with a good bit of plants to plant it was time to get to work. Here are the before pictures:

Garden 1 - we had transplanted our seedlings here in mid-May, but only the corn survived the Memorial Day frost.


Future sight of garden 2.


No fancy rototillers here, just simple hand tools and lots of mom-kid muscle! :o)

Our seedlings transplanted to containers have done fine. We're not sure why!

Tomato container - we started the seeds in April, moved to the container outside mid-May.


Beets and peppers. I have never grown beets before and wish I had planted more!

With no room in the containers and not enough room in the 2 gardens we had already, we were going to have to dig up some turf and make another bed. We worked almost all day, starting at 10 this morning. We took a break from 1:00 - 3:00 to avoid the heat of the day.

Ian helped me all day. Here we are in the morning getting started.


Tess helped us on and off throughout the day.

Here are the fruits of our labor:

Back door garden - I don't know how these plants will do as this area gets really wet when it rains, and does not receive full sun, but some of our seedlings transplanted here have done well.


Garden 1


Garden 2

Here's to growing what you eat! Yippee! :o)
 

My friend found some groovy seventies pictures of her as a wee one and posted one to her blog. I thought I'd join the fun and see if I could get some other funky photos out there, so here are mine:




Now it's YOUR turn. Get your plaid polyester groove on! :o)

Our homeschool group was to meet at Preston's Hope for a field trip, but the weather kept all but one other family away. While the kids had fun, I didn't care for the park and have no desire to go back.

Ian


Tess and friends


Warren

Tuesday the 27th was supposed to be a great day filled with fun at the Akron zoo. We were meeting up with our homeschool group to celebrate the "May birthdays." We arrived more or less on time and met up with everyone by the penguins, just inside the gate.

Tess by the penguins, just a couple of minutes before things got ugly.

For those not familiar with the Akron zoo, there is an upper viewing area by the penguins that is accessed by way of stone steps which have lovely sharp edges. At the top of the viewing area there were children (from another field trip?) playing tag. One of these children pushed Warren and he ended up falling down the stairs. He received a nasty bump on his head, a deep cut that went down to the bone, and a concussion. He needed two layers of stitches.

Warren the following morning. His bruise hadn't really developed here, but he had quite a nice lump.

He got his stitches out on Saturday and is cleared to resume normal activity as of Tuesday. He had to spend a quiet week due to the concussion. For our trouble the zoo gave us two free passes (no that is not a typo) which we don't even need since we are Cleveland zoo members and get in free anyway. I am really not sure what to make of that.

We had a great time on Thursday, hiking Fort Island with Hiking Summit County. There was a lot of Skunk Cabbage and Poison Ivy along the trail as well as a very invasive non native plant, Garlic Mustard. A lot of parks in the area pull it as it is squeezing out the native plants,  but a word to the wise, don't pull it at Fort Island without a full haz-mat suit. Poison Ivy is everywhere! :oP


Which way are we going?!


Gee, I wonder what that is...


Ack!


And they're off...


Hmmmm, I wonder what that is... (BTW that's the invasive garlic mustard in the foreground)


I'm really not sure why we like this trail....


May they always take the road less travelled...

Happy trails!

The kids are really doing great. The weekly swimming and gymnastics are really maing a difference. I have seen huge changes in water confidence and athletic ability. :o)

Ian learning a new move on the rings.


Tess learning a new move on the rings.


Warren is such a crab (I crack myself up)! :oP


Ian works on hand stands.


Tess works her arms.


Evan and Warren hiking near our house.

West Side Gymnastics which offers our Homeschool Gymnastics classes is simply wonderful. The kids are having such a great time and the staff there is just amazing. They are patient and friendly and even good with Warren which is really amazing; he's a handful to say the least! :p

The kids are really making progress! Here are some more pictures to prove it! :o)


Tess


Ian


The pre-K siblings class

Note: Since I am so far behind getting my own videos up here (and I am sure it has nothing to do with Warren dropping the laptop) I am posting Carmen's very cool video here. Thanks, Carmen! :o)

With the weather improving we've been getting out to enjoy it as much as possible. For us that means hiking. Here are some pictures from our latest adventures!

After gymnastics on Monday we headed to a local park that has short walking trails. The kids found some really cool seeds, and of course, rocks. :p


Jacob, Emma, and Tess


Kiersten shows the kids some cool seeds


Warren and Ian

With the weather improving we've been getting out to enjoy it as much as possible. For us that means hiking. Here are some pictures from our latest adventures!

First, with HikingSummitCounty we hiked a portion of the Towpath Trail, beginning at the Musthill Store trailhead.

Ian, Gregory, Tess, and Warren as we head out on the trail.


Duck (Gregory), duck (Ian).....


GOOSE (goose)!


Warren and Tess


Bird

We've been on spring break! Well, sort of, the kids have continued their reading and phonics, and in Ian's case most of his reading has been non-fiction. Lately he's been into reading about big cats and primates. He really should be a wildlife biologist/zoologist, he reads this stuff voraciously. We now have gymnastics twice a week, hiking has started up again (when weather permits), and we still go swimming on Fridays! We've also had some awesome field trips, including one to our local town hall. I've also started singing again, I am the newest member of the choir at the Unitarian Universalist church! :)

Gymnastics


Ian and Tess


Warren

Swimming


Warren


Tess


Ian and Gregory

Hiking


Gregory, Ian, and Tess


Ian

Friends


Tess and Jacob


Joshua, Gregory, and Ian


Warren and Evan

We celebrated friend Aiden's birthday on Thursday with our first ever (for our kiddos) bowling experience. Gregory was sleeping over at our house, so we dragged him along. The kids had a GREAT time (THANK YOU, Stacey!) and our new retirement plan is to get Tess into professional bowling. She kicked some serious booty for a girl who'd never held a bowling ball! We hope to make bowling a regular occurrence both for fun and retirement savings! :o)

Birthday boy, Aiden, checks out the cake.


Big brother, Lucas; look at that form!


Future champ? Look at her go!


Gregory would bowl...


and pray.


While Ian and...


Aiden


preferred to bowl and then tell the ball which direction it should be going. Right, please!




Warren and Evan enjoy the refreshments!


Warren bowled with renewed vigor after eating two cupcakes!


Evan gets pointers from Mom!


Tess and Gregory have their own unique way of watching the game.


Happy Birthday, Aiden!